Guild Hunter 01 - Angels' Blood

seemed to have better control over his impulses than the young ones who turn. Is it not possible that he was right, that if we could traverse the problematic period, we might come out of it with enormous power on the other side?”
    “The problematic period, as you put it,” he said, watching the byplay between Neha and Titus, sweet poison against granite will, “turns us into killers without compare. Our most recent investigations indicate that, counting his servants, Uram killed close to two hundred people in less than ten days.”
    “But he was thinking.”
    “Only of more death.” Raphael kept his tone temperate through sheer force of will. That Lijuan was considering this even on a peripheral level was a very bad sign. “Had we given him a year, he would’ve torn apart thousands, glutting himself each time. That is what makes an angel bloodborn, the inability to stop, to fight the lust for blood and power.”
    “I killed the last one, did you know? The one the humans call the father of all vampires.” She laughed at the idea. “He was highly intelligent, evaded me for years, even ruled a sector.”
    “He bled the sector dry,” Raphael reminded her. “He had no control over his instinct to kill—a puppet of his own desire. Is that what you would call power?”
    Lijuan gave him an inscrutable look, a look filled with things such as he’d never seen and never wished to see. “You are a clever one, Raphael. Have no fear, I will not turn. It holds little interest for me now. As you well know.”
    He didn’t apologize. “Only stupidity excuses ignorance.”
    That made Lijuan giggle again. “Now you are being cruel to the others.”
    He wondered over that. If the others truly didn’t know about Lijuan’s evolution, then they were going to get an extremely unpleasant surprise one of these days. “I believe they’ve reached a consensus.”
    The others had split Uram’s territory to their satisfaction, rearranging the boundaries of their own lands to satisfy their landlust. Raphael let them do so. His territory was already one of the largest, and even more important, one of the most productive and profitable. He had no desire to haggle over land Uram had beaten into submission. Weakness had never interested Raphael.
    No, he was drawn to warriors.
    Michaela smiled at him again as the meeting ended, lingering behind with Elijah. “It’s a pity, is it not, Raphael,” she said after the room cleared of all but the three of them, “that your hunter died?”
    He didn’t say a word, just watched her.
    Her smile widened. “She’d outlived her usefulness in any case.” She flicked her hand, brushing aside Elena’s life as one would a fly. “I was rather disappointed I didn’t get to hunt her, but it’s as well—I’ll be very busy now that I have part of Uram’s land to govern along with my own.”
    Elijah looked at Raphael. “You liked the hunter?”
    It was Michaela who answered. “Oh, he was quite possessive over the mortal. He warned me off from hurting her.” A deeply vicious smile. “But now she is dead and you must court me. Perhaps I will accept you.”
    Raphael raised an eyebrow. “You’re not the only female angel.”
    “But I am the most beautiful.” Giving him another smile edged with broken glass, she swept out.
    Elijah stared after her. “I’m very glad I never dipped in that particular pond.”
    “You surprise me,” Raphael said. “I thought I was the only one.”
    “I had been with Hannah for over a century by the time Michaela found me.” He shrugged. “I’m not her type in any case, as the mortals say.”
    “Everyone is her type. And no one.” The only person Michaela cared about was herself. “Do you think she ever attempted to seduce Lijuan?”
    Elijah choked on his laugh. “Careful, old friend. You will give me a heart attack.”
    Raphael didn’t return the laugh. “What is it you want to say, Eli?”
    The other archangel’s laughter faded. “Lijuan. She raises the dead.”
    “We can’t yet say if the power is good or evil.” Though Raphael knew what he believed. “She’s the oldest of us all—we have no template to judge her evolution.”
    “True. But, Raphael”—Elijah paused, sighed—“you’re old enough to know that the powers we achieve with age are tied intrinsically to who we are. That Lijuan should manifest an ability associated with death, it tells us a great deal about her.”
    “What about you?” Raphael asked, keeping